1. Technical Field of the Invention
Lids, beverage containers, lids for beverage containers, hot beverage container lid, temperature sensing devices, smell, sight and taste enhancing media, beverage container lid with beverage access means.
2. Description of the Invention
Disposable beverage cups and lids have been in use since the early 20th century. Those devices were invented out of health concerns which arose from contagious conditions being transmitted from using the then common shared glasses or dippers at water sources such as school faucets or water barrels in trains. The first widely used disposable cup was the Dixie Cup which was made of paper and invented in 1908. Over the years, many other disposable cups of varying sizes and materials have been introduced into the market. The weight and thickness of the material varied with the type and temperature of the beverage for which the various cups were being used. More recently, starting with the rapidly gained popularity and high volume output of the fast-food industry, the need for hot-beverage cups with lids became evident. The inception of drive-up window service usually associated with the fast-food industry made the safe containment of hot beverages an important requirement. In addition, the safe manipulation of the container for drinking without inhibiting vision while simultaneously driving and drinking a hot beverage became an increasingly pressing requirement.
A more recent phenomenon, causing a different demand for lids and cups, is the worldwide proliferation of gourmet coffee-based establishments which serve exotic varieties of rich, hot coffee and high quality hot teas, at costs up to $18.00 per gallon—nearly six times the cost of premium gasoline. The demand for hot coffee and teas served by those gourmet coffee establishments has been extremely healthy and continues to grow. However, there has not been much, if any, significant improvement in the container, i.e., the lid and cup, from the standpoint of the consumer's: (1) ability to manipulate and handle the container; (2) face to ergonomically interact with the lid; and (3) enhancement of sensory perception connected with the coffee consumption.
Most gourmet hot coffee cups are made of sufficiently resistant paper, paper-polymeric composites, or rigid Styrofoam materials. The cup maintains its shape and structural integrity more effectively with a lid firmly placed and held on the top of the cup. The server usually places the lid on the cup after the coffee is poured into the cup. The lid and cup combination results in a stronger container than the individual strengths of the separate components. The newest paper cups, with a plastic lid press-fitted in place create an adequately strong container. In some cases, the cup wall without the lid tends to deform under the grasp of a human hand.
There are generally two gourmet or premium coffee-by-the-cup consumer types: the walk-in consumer, and the drive-up consumer. The walk-in consumer walks into an establishment, receives a cup of coffee, in a cup with a lid affixed over the counter. Then, if this type of consumer does not drink just black unsweetened coffee, the consumer takes the hot cup of coffee to a condiment counter where the lid is removed to facilitate the addition of dairy products and/or condiments. The lid is usually set on the condiment counter while the consumer uses both hands to add condiments and stir them into the coffee. This consumer type then generally replaces the lid and drinks the coffee either at a table, or while walking to a destination. Many consumers, whether drinkers of creamed and sweetened or black coffee, throw the lid away in order to enjoy the aroma, taste, color, motion and temperature of the coffee, and to eliminate the cumbersome nature of the lid-cup combination.
The type of consumer who walks out of the coffee establishment and drinks his/her coffee while walking among other pedestrians, urban obstacles and vehicular traffic, dangerously impedes his/her forward vision when the cup is approaching approximately one third empty. Beyond this approach, this type of consumer critically loses binocular vision, including some forward sight while the lid surface interferes with his/her nose due to the need to acutely tilt his head backward to allow dispensing of the coffee. The conventional prior art lid in this consumption mode causes a significant safety hazard to this type of consumer when he/she is walking and drinking coffee in heavy pedestrian traffic or in and around urban vehicular traffic. A sight impeded person in such an environment could: trip up, compromise the integrity of the container and cause scalding coffee to pour on himself or another person; fall and become injured; collide with objects and persons; be stricken by a car while crossing the street; or otherwise place their self in harm's way. This conventional lid hazard becomes greater to the drive-up consumer and to others in the path of his/her vehicle while the consumer drinks through a conventional lid on a cup of coffee served at a drive-up window.
The lids of the prior art generally have a small racetrack oval shaped drinking hole near the perimeter of the lid allowing the consumer to drink and taste the coffee. One brand of prior art lid has a larger rectangular, almost square, shaped whole near the lid perimeter. The drinking holes of all lids of the prior art are on a horizontal plane. The size and orientation of the racetrack oval shaped drinking hole lids cause their rim thicknesses, relative to the rim diameter, to be wider than what consumers are accustomed to when drinking from cups, either disposable without the lid or permanent cups, or mugs. This rim width and curvature influences the mouth to conform to an unnatural shape compared to drinking from a lidless container. Although the one brand of prior art lid with the larger rectangular drinking hole has a thin rim were the user's lips touch the lid during drinking, the generally flat or very slightly curved tops of all prior art lids cause significant ergonomical disadvantages compared with the lid of this invention. That disadvantage of all lids of the prior art is compounded because most, if not all, upper surfaces of the prior art lids tend to contact the tip of the user's nose almost immediately upon tipping the cup for drinking. This untimely contact between nose and lid impedes comfortable sealing of the human lips around the drinking hole and simultaneously forces the head back to allow pouring of the beverage beyond approximately one-third consumption of the cup contents. Obviously, normal cups without lids do not require such exaggerated head tilting because the nose can pass through the top plane of the cup or mug opening in the absence of a cup lid thereby not forcing the nose to deform the normal drinking mode shape of the lips, and allowing the cup to tip virtually horizontal with little or no tilting of the head.
Taste and to some degree touch are the only senses that existing coffee lids allow the consumer to experience and enjoy. Users use touch to sense the temperature of the contents by manually feeling the temperature through the cup walls, and by contact between the lips and the plastic surface of the lid. Taste, by itself, without the compounded effect of multiple sensory responses, lowers the single sense effect. The limited touch sensing of the hot beverage temperature misrepresents the true temperature of the hot beverage until it pours out through the lid onto the tongue. The insulating effect of the plastic wall of the lid, and the shape and orientation of the spout in the lids of the prior art, deprives the consumer of optimal taste and touch perception.
Prior art lids allow pouring of the hot beverage deep into the mouth and onto the tongue too quickly. That deprives the drinker of timely anticipation of taste and temperature by the maximum number of taste buds and nerve endings located from the very front to the back of the mouth. When multiple senses are simultaneously stimulated, the sensory response of each sense is greater than the sense being stimulated alone. When physical interruptions and obstructions to a normal sensory experience exist, so do distractions from the normal experience and enjoyment of it. Its seems wasteful to drink a cup of $18.00 per gallon coffee, carefully selected, roasted, brewed, rich, hot and aromatic, through an inefficient lid which makes the experience less than full, clumsy and sometimes unpleasant.
Prior art lids for regular hot coffee or hot tea consumption are opaque and, except for the spout and a very tiny air vent hole, are vapor and liquid-sealed. The old saying, “I wish coffee tasted as good as it smells,” begs the question: why should such a simple plastic lid deprive the consumer of using all available senses; smell, sight and touch to enhance the enjoyment of a good cup of coffee? The present invention provides a vehicle to enhance the coffee-drinking experience by involving multiple available senses in a comfortable and ergonomic manner.
There are other problems with prior art lids that are unrelated to the sensory issues. Removal of the lid to add and stir in condiments, while solving one problem, causes another in that the coffee cup walls become weaker and tend to flatten in the grasp of a hand. A cup without a lid allows the contents—in this case, hot coffee—to cool faster, which is undesirable. A cup without a lid is potentially-unsafe in the pedestrian and vehicular travel modes. The desire to not replace the lid usually overrides the physical practicality and safety aspects of replacing the lid unless the consumer is traveling while drinking in which case sensory response is sacrificed for safe and effective containment of the beverage.
The opaqueness of all prior art lids also deprives the consumer of seeing the color, motion and level of the coffee in the cup. Sight in and of itself does not stimulate a pleasure response because while drinking, one cannot see the coffee even when drinking from an open cup. To see the coffee just prior to drinking has a positive effect because the drinker sees the movement and color of the coffee in the cup. This effect causes the consumer to anticipate the taste, smell and temperature of the coffee, and to not be distracted by the uncertainty of when and at what flow rate the coffee will reach the spout. The elimination of these sensory obstacles with the addition of elements that facilitate sensory perception allows the consumer enhanced enjoyment of a gourmet cup of coffee.